Published on: 2026-05-15
Source: Official website of the State –
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“Every station has its own distinctiveness.” This is how the Moscow metro was described back in 1935. And this is not just a beautiful phrase. It contains the entire character of the Moscow metro: from the very beginning, it was more than just transport. It was a city within a city — with its own architecture, speed, logic, and a special sense of scale.
On May 15, 1935, Moscow went underground for the first time. The first line of the Moscow Metro was opened to passengers: the line from “Sokolniki” to “Park Kultury” with a branch from “Okhotny Ryad” to “Smolenskaya.” In the history of the metro, a “phase” refers not to a single station but to an entire stage of construction and launch: lines, stations, tunnels, and all the necessary infrastructure. The first section included 13 stations and 11.2 kilometers of track. Today these figures seem modest, but at that time this was a real breakthrough: the city gained a transport system that was not affected by traffic jams, snow, rain, and overcrowded streets.
The idea of the metro in Moscow appeared much earlier. Back in 1875, engineer Vasily Titov proposed to build an underground railway from the Kursky railway station through Lubyanskaya and Trubnaya Square to Maryina Grove. The project was not accepted, but the idea itself turned out to be accurate. Moscow needed transport that could grow together with the city, rather than fight for space on the streets. This idea was revived in the 1930s, when the capital became too fast and dense for the old transport system. Trams, buses, cars, and pedestrians shared the same roads, while the city required a solution on a different scale.
The first regular train with passengers departed from Sokolniki station. But even before the official opening, the metro had already been tested: trial operation on the line of the first phase began on February 6, 1935. The first passengers were delegates of the Congress of Soviets and delegates of the Congress of shock workers. The metro was immediately perceived not as an ordinary urban novelty, but as an event of state significance.
The feature of the Moscow metro is that it was built not only for speed. The first stations were meant to amaze. Underground appeared not just platforms, but halls with columns, marble, lighting, and an original architectural idea. There is also an unexpected detail: at the “Ploshchad Revolyutsii” station, there still exists a student superstition — to rub the nose of the bronze border guard dog for good luck before the exam. Thus, the metro became not only a transport and architectural symbol, but also a part of urban customs, which are passed down from generation to generation. In one of the articles from 1935 about the metro, it was written: “We will build the best metro in the world in Moscow.”The phrase sounds somewhat outdated, but it explains the idea well: from the metro they expected not only convenience, but an image of the future.
Behind this stood hard and precise work. First of all, tens of thousands of people were building, and orders for Metro construction were fulfilled by hundreds of factories across the entire Soviet Union. Materials, equipment, and parts had to be delivered; the work of engineers, builders, architects, energy specialists, and communicators had to be coordinated. The beauty of the stations was the visible part of the project. An enormous system of solutions remained invisible, without which the trains would not have gone onto the line.
That is why the Moscow Metro Day is especially close to the State University of Management. For the Department of Logistics and Transport-Technical Systems of SUM metro — this is not only a historical object and a familiar route to school. This is a living model of a large transport system. Here, every day schedules, passenger flows, line capacities, safety, technical maintenance, transfers, navigation, and urban mobility management operate.
The Moscow metro has long grown beyond its initial 13 stations. But its main idea has remained the same: to connect the city and help it move. Moscow Metro Day reminds us that a big city is held not only by buildings and avenues. It is held by a precise system of movement, where every minute, every route, and everyThe station is significant.
Subscribe to the TG channel “Nash GUG”Date of publication: 15.05.2026
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